a local family devastated. what firefighters are saying about this tragedy. plus, breaking news overnight in the manhunt taking place in california on the mountains there. police releasing new information about what they found after a shootout and a fire. deserves a vote. the families of newtown deserve a vote. the families of aurora deserve a vote. >> and perhaps the most emotional moment from the state of the union address, the call for a vote on gun control. this morning, the president preparing to take his message on the road. a very busy wednesday morning here on "news4 today." good morning to you. i'm eun yang. i'm aaron gilchrist. we start with winter weather arriving here in a matter of hours. some rain, snow and the timing just right to make it a real mess later today. storm team 4 meteorologist tom kierein is tracking it. tom? >> a lot of that rain moving into the area. that's what's coming our way

later. right now, just increasing clouds moving into the metro area from the south and west. no precipitation coming from these clouds. a dry pavement greeting you and cold temperatures too. it's just near 30 degrees in montgomery county. arlington, fairfax, prince george's right now in the low 30s. mid-30s in the district of columbia. right near the bay waters in the upper 30s. farther west, shenandoah valley, it's generally in the low to mid-30s there. thickening cloud. by 9:00 the low 40s. our sunrise this morning at 7:01. sunset at r5:44. i'll show you the timeline and when the changeover will occur, jobs we may get in ten minutes. just past 6:00. here's danella. i'm tracking breaking news. new york at kendall street. a crash involving a pedestrian. two of the right lanes blocked.

authorities say the right lanes will be blocked throughout the morning rush. this may start to cause huge delays later, especially inbound on 50. for now, over to arlington northbound. lehigh way at fort meyer drive. right lane blocked by the crash there. 395 not bad this morning. a live look at edsall. 12 minutes from the beltway to the 14th street bridge. i am back in ten. eun, over to you. 6:02 now. we're following breaking news out of southern california. police are trying to determine if a body recovered from a burned-out mountain cabin is a former police officer suspected of going on a killing spree. overnight, police told us they'll have to use forensics to determine if the remains are in fact those of christopher dorner. he's within one of the country most wanted men for the past week. police lawn achd massive manhunt for dorner who waged a deadly campaign to exact revenge for his firing. that led officers to a cabin in big bear lake where dorner barricaded himself inside.

he and officers fired at each other before the cabin somehow caught fire. >> until mr. dorner has been identified as deceased or got handcuffs on him sitting in a jail, we're going to continue as though he's still out there. we want to make sure that all our officers and the citizens in los angeles are safe. >> dorner killed at least four people. could take days or weeks for police to identify the remains found in that burned-out cabin. new had morning, dashcam video as fire crews are pulling up to a massive house fire. this isn't charles county. one person was killed. three other people went to the hospital as a result of this fire. it broke out about 1:00 in the 5300 block of stuckey road in indian head. megan mcgrath live at the scene with more. megan? >> reporter: aaron, you can see the tremendous damage done to the home behind me here on stuckey road. the roof is collapsed.

the flames absolutely gutted the interior of this home. a very intense fire and deadly fire. when firefighters arrived on the scene, the house was already fully engulfed in flames. take a look at this dashcam video. this was shot by a member of the bryan's road volunteer fire department. it's mounted on the dashcam. this gives you an idea of what they encountered when they arrived on the scene. flames shooting up into the night sky. the house fully engulfed by those flames. an elderly woman was killed inside the house, four children, three adults have been displaced. three people were transported to the hospital. we're told that those injuries are not life threatening. this was a difficult fire to fight. this is a rural area here in charles county. there are not fire hydrants. they had to bring in tanker trucks for their water source. they had challenges in putting this fire out. as you can see from that video, just a tremendous volume of fire right off the bat had they arrived here. the cause still under

investigation at this point. reporting live in charles county, megan mcgrath, news 4. pack to you. it is all about the economy once again this morning after a state of the union dominated by new ideas from the president. >> he hopes to drive that point home with a trip to an auto parts maker in north carolina today. >> mr. speaker, the president of the united states. >> the president invested theerly half of his annual address to focusing on what he called reigniting the middle class. he included a renewed call for immigration reform, which is month from being made a reality. >> real reform means stronger border security. real reform means establishing a responsible pathway to earn citizenship. a path that includes passing a background check, paying taxes and a meaningful penalty, learning english and going to the back of the line behind

people coming legally. and it means fixing the legal immigration system. cut waiting periods and track the highly skilled entrepreneurs and engineers that will help create jobs and grow our economy. the end of the speech was the most emotional. the president focused on gun violence highlighting about two dozen families in the audience impacted by recent shootings. including the parents of hadiya pendleton who was gunned down a mile from the obama's chicago home. >> gabby giffords deserves a vote. the families of newtown deserve a vote. the families of aurora deserve a vote. the families of blacksburg and tucson and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence, they deserve a simple vote. >> the president did mention universal background checks and

reducing magazine sizes but primarily used a moment to rally a vote on the measures. much more on the state of the union at 6:30. we'll break down the middle class plan, including the moment that was most tweeted about. if you missed the address, you can watch in its entirety online at nbcwashington.com. there's a link on the home page. following the president's address, republicans responded largely by criticizing president obama's handling of the economy. up and coming senator marco rubio spoke on behalf of the parties saying the president has an obsession with raising taxes. >> in order to balance our budget, it doesn't have to be benefit cuts and raising taxes. instead, we should grow our economy. create new taxpayers, not new taxes. so our government can help those who truly cannot help themselves. >> rubio also called on the president to adopt the republican plan for medicare reform and renewed a call for spending cuts. the country considering putting a warning label on one. most popular drinks in the world.

plus, the pope's first appearance since his major announcement. you want to stay with us all day for the forecast when rain and snow are expected

time for weather and traffic on the 1s. here's your temperature and precipitation timeline for the day. mid-40s by noontime and cloudy between now and then. light rain in the afternoon. changing to some wet snow after sunset up until midnight. less than an inch in the light blue areas. off north and west a little more. back with the seven-day outlook in ten minutes. a look at traffic with danella. still following breaking news in northeast d.c. new york avenue at kendall street. two of the right lanes are

blocked. a live picture to take you to. here's the scene. tony tull is on the scene now tracking this accident. it should last through your morning rush. talking about delays as you travel inbound new york avenue. starting to see delays at bladensburg. be aware of that. pack in ten minutes. talk about the crash in arlington. back to you both. 6:12 now. new this morning, the pope delivers a message to the crowd of worshippers and more on what he'll do now. >> had morning, proof that starbucks really is everywhere. members

switching to progressive could mean hundreds more in your wallet year after year. feed me! saving you money -- now, that's progressive. call or click today. 67:15. let's go live to tony tull on new york avenue. he arrived to breaking news. >> i want to show you the scene right now. you can see the mercedes involved in the accident with extensive damage to the windshield and extensive damage to the body as well. the driver did stay on the scene. he's actually talking to police right now. i just talked to him a few short moments ago. allegedly the person that he hit

stepped out into new york avenue before the crosswalk. about 100 feet up. we haven't confirmed that from the police. they're doing their investigation. there's a shoe and there is some clothing about 100 feet from the crosswalk. we're at 1300 new york avenue and kendall street. one thing we should notice. there's a d.c. public school bus lot here. we haven't confirmed with the police if the person who was trying to cross the street was going over to this bus lot. there are a lot of people getting ready for their shift for d.c. public schools. guys, we'll continue to stay on story and bring you all the details as they're available. again, d.c. police are still investigating this accident as it happened. as danella mentioned, it's going to impact traffic all morning long. two westbound lanes of new york avenue closed right now. >> tony tull live in northeast. thanks, tony. >> following breaking news. a nato air strike in eastern afghanistan killed ten civilians

nine of them women and children. the attack targeted a taliban hideout. three taliban commanders were also killed in the strike. nato forces are investigating and they take the allegations of civilian death very seriously. 6:17 now. moments ago, the pope made his first comments since announcing his resignation. a live look at vatican city. the pope made his address there about an hour ago. you can still see huge crowds of people gathered at st. peter's square. an ecstatic kraut greeted the pope. he told them he's aware of the gravity of his decision but prayer and christ will help guide the church. the pope will celebrate ash wednesday mass later today at st. peter's basilica. the pope's last address will likely be february 27th. one day before he steps down. as christians around the world mark ash wednesday, one virginia church hopes to reach

people who can't make it to church. there will be ashes to go at the clarn ton and virginia square metro stations during the morning and evening commutes today. a disabled carnival cruise ship could arrive in alabama as early as tonight after catching fire and losing power over the weekend. tugboats are slowly pulling the boat from southern mexico back to the state. passengers report increasingly unsanitary conditions, including sewage down the walls and floors. the company ceo says carnival is using the full resources to help the passengers. carnival will offer a free flight home, a full refund and a future cruise for all the people on the ship. government officials say the controversial alcoholic drink four loko needs to it make major changes. the malt liquor maker required to put an alcohol fact panel on the backs of every can. it will include the alcohol by volume and the number of servings. they have to change all the cans containing more than 2 1/2 servings of alcohol to be resealed and don't have to be

consumed in one sitting. health officials in new zealand won't be adding health warnings on their soft drink labels. the push came after a woman who drank 2 gallons of coca-cola had a day died of a heart attack. the coroner who examined the woman said the amount of soda and caffeine she drank likely led to imbalances that caused her heart problems. labels will not save anyone who chooses to drink 30 cans of mi soda, in this case coke, a day. pitchers and catchers report to spring training today. there is controversy surrounding the team this yier. the best record in baseball last year. but they have a different look this season. rafael soriano will be the team's new closer. they also traded away michael morris. the biggest off season -- that gio gonzalez used performance-enhancing drugs. yesterday he reiterated his

stand that he never cheated. >> i've never taken performance-enhancing drugs and i never will. you're stunned and shocked and your name was brought up out of in no. where. you have to it out and you can't jump the gun or jump to conclusions. >> it's been linked to a florida ban providing substances to major league players. his father was a legitimate patient there who went to lose weight. score! >> thanks to troy brower, the capitals have their first winning streak of the season. the caps overcame a two-goal deficit for a thrilling 6-5 overtime win against the panthers. the capitals take on the lightning tomorrow might. starbucks is setting sail. the first ever fully functional coffee shop opened on the u.s.s boxer. the coffee shop named the star boxer serves starbucks brand coffee and all sales from the sahr boxer goes to a military

fund. the baristas came aboard to show them how to operate the machines. the new addition gives sailors a touch of home while out at sea. nice little addition there in that case. 6:21 is our team. want to check on rain coming into the yar i can't. tom kierein has the details. >> need an umbrella before you head out the door. it will likely be moving in later this afternoon. it will be cloudy. 8:00 a.m. mid-30s. mid-40s by noon. mid-afternoon by 3:00. it will be raining. that rain will be changing over to some snow had evening. wet snow between 6:00 p.m. until 2:00 a.m. thursday. may be leaving a light coat. all the areas in light blue, shenandoah valley. northern suburbs of washington. mainly on grassy areas. i think the road temperatures will be too warm for accumulation. out of the mountains, they may get 1 or 2 inches.

some of the parts in western maryland and high spots in west virginia. maybe 1 to 3 mchs in the higher elevations. then sun back tomorrow. highs in the 40s. near 50 on friday. might get flurries and snow showers on saturday. much colder over the weekend. saturday's high only in the 30s. mid-30s for highs on sunday. still winter. still cold on monday with sunshine tuesday could get some rain. a look at traffic now with danella. >> still tracking breaking news in northeast d.c. the crash along new york avenue inbound at ken dral streak near love nightclub. you'll see two of your right lanes blocked by the crash. involves the -- delays at bladensburg. over to arlington in virginia. northbound lehigh way at fort myer drive. also there, closed between lehigh way and wilson boulevard. aaron and eun, over to you. >> thank you, danella. best in show went to the top

banana. the dog that understands more languages than most people. >> royal outrage, the new kate

the royal family is calling new photos of princess katherine a breach of privacy. a tabloid published pictures of her preg mant in a bikini. they were snapped while duke and duchess were on vacation in the caribbean. if you couldn't stay up to watch who won the best in show. the winning dog will be live on the "today" show after "news4 today." here he is. he's an affenpinscher named banana joe. he won the westminster dog show. his owner says he speaks german, dutch, spanish and english all with a doggie accent. >> cute and talented. why the biggest winner from the state of the union may be poland springs. a fiery finish to the suspected killer in california. why police are not calling off the dogs just yet. a live report just ahead. what to expect from the storm system when it arrives here. we

breaking news. all lanes shut down. how to get around this scene. it is our generation's task to reignite the true engine of

america's economic growth. a rising, thriving middle class. >> middle class message. the president focuses his state of the union on restarting what he calls the engine. in just a few minutes i'm going to show you using the news 4 super screen what he laid out in his plan and we'll tell you which moment had people tweeting at a record pace. >> first, storm team 4 is busy tracking this system. rainy, snowy and all around ugly day. meteorologist tom kierein is tracking it. good morning to you. >> right now around the region, we don't have any precipitation falling. we have cold temperatures and we do have the cloud cover that's been on the increase over the last couple of hours now moving over the metro area. it's going to be cloudy through the morning hours. as we get into the afternoon, we'll likely have our temperatures that are near freezing. warming into the 40s. right now in the upper 20s, low 30s. mid-30s around the region. we'll stay this way for another couple of hours or so. then by the time we get into the middle part of afternoon, we'll be into the mid-40s.

between now and then, by 9:00, the low 40s. ought to be in the low 40s, mid-40s by noontime. during the afternoon it will likely get rain moving in. then that rain changing over to snow tonight. i'll show you the timeline on this and when that may occur, jobs snow may fall where. that's coming up in ten minutes. now a look at traffic with danella, good morning. >> good morning. still tracking breaking news in northeast d.c. if you're traveling new york avenue inbound at kendall street. all your lanes are temporarily blocked because of the crash involved a pedestrian. tony tull is live on the scene. delays are growing from bladensburg. you're pretty much jammed. your best alternate route is take rhode island and reconnect to north capitol. expect all lanes to be temporarily blocked. you can see no traffic is getting by the scene of this crash. head back to arlington northbound. lehigh way at fort hier drive. right lane is -- closed between

lehigh way and wilson boulevard. your commute is up next. back over to you. president obama hitting the road this morning a day after an ambitious state of the union address that could set up the legacy for the rest of his presidency. he's headed to north carolina to an auto parts plant to hammer home the overriding theme of his speech, jobs. we can't just cut our way to o prosperity. they know that broad-based economic growth requires a balanced approach to deficit reduction. with spending cuts and revenue. and with everybody doing their fair share. >> the battle over spending took centerstage at president obama's state of the union address. he laid out a plan that he says will reignite the middle class without adding a dime to the national deficit and central to that plan is education the president says. he called for high quality preschool which he says will boost graduation rates. he wants to reward schools that emphasize math, science an technology. when it comes to higher education, he wants to withhold

federal aid to colleges that don't keep tuition costs down. on o the jobs front, he called for a raise to the minimum wage up to $9 from the current $7.25. he wants to link it to increases in the cost of living. he also wants to create infrastructure jobs with a federal program that will fix deteriorating bridges, ports, pipelines and schools. on top of that, the president wants to come back to the idea that have been floating around like reforming medicare, changing the tax code and increasing green energy programs. >> another issue the president talked about will be the focus of a senate hearing today. the judiciary committee will hold its first hearing on immigration reformulater this morning. homeland security secretary janet napolitano will speak and antonio vargas. he's a former journalist and illegal immigrant who founded the group which campaigns for immigration reform. university of maryland's president says changes could be coming to the school after a

murder-suicide involving three students. dr. wallace lowe spoke last night at a vigil for the three victims. the family of davon green, a grad student says he was mentally ill but on medication. green had a bag of weapons including a machete, a semiautomatic weapon -- one of his roommates was killed and injured before green turned the gun on himself. the injured student is expected to be okay. >> in critical condition after he was shot in the head during a training exercise. the trainee was taking part in a drill on the ground of a closed psychiatric hospital in owings mills. baltimore police announced they have suspended all training exercises -- maryland investigating this incident. >> new it this morning, police in prince george's county are looking for the gunman who shot and killed someone in port washington. all they're saying is someone was shot to death before 11:00 last night on rosa marie drive

off tucker road. police won't say if it was a man or woman. the human rights watches allegations about d.c. police mishandling rape cases will get a closer look soon. 170 allegations of sexual assault were not documented over the last three years. now a private firm will look into those claims. >> they were critical of the report when it was released in january. how marco ruin wroe is embracing a moment during his response. dramatic video of a house fire. what firefighters found the moment they arrived on the scene. we'll go live to the california mountains where the manhunt for a suspected killer is believed to have ended overnight. we're watching rain and snow heading our way. weather and traffic on the 1s, ne

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let's go live to tony tull on the scene of breaking news. eun, as you heard danella

say a few moments ago, all westbound lanes at kendall and new york are shut down. take a live look. you can see them diverting traffic at fenwick. you can also see the car that was involved in this accident, this black mercedes. you can see the windshield heavily damaged. the driver stayed on the scene. i talked to the driver a few moments ago and allegedly the person he struck stepped out about 100 feet before the crosswalk here at ken dral street. as you can see, there are a lot of people crossing the crosswalk. we're at a bus depot for d.c. public schools. a lot of people this morning crossing the crosswalk, going to work, going to a lot of bus drivers, i should say going to work to start shifts. i also want to point out we've had a fire truck and ambulance respond to the scene here. no word on why they're here. again, all westbound lanes of new york avenue here at kendall are shut down for quite some time. right now we'll toss it over to danella with your detours for now. good morning. tony, it is a mess on the roads. i'm just urging people that want

to take rhode island and michigan avenue if you want to stay far from it. then you can reconnect to north capitol street and get back on new york avenue. let's talk about delays. accident here. as you make your way on 50, already seeing delays in maryland. a live look at landover road. you can see bumper to bumper. a lot of people trying to commute into the city. trying to avoid 50 and take bw parkway instead. it looks a bit better now. i'm still checking on things in arlington. ft. myer drive, the right lane is blocked. check on delays, i-95, i promised a travel feed. 26 minutes from prince william parkway to the capitol beltway. now over to tom who says snow is in the forecast. >> there's a tangerine tinge on

the clouds. the clouds are rolling in. they're going to be with us through the morning. here's the timeline. by midday, mid-40s. then rain moving in by early to mid-afternoon. light rain all the way until around sunset. then after sunset tonight that we may get the wet snow moving through. the rain changing to wet snow north and west of washington leaving a coating to up to a half inch. grassy areas mainly and melting on roads. farther north and west, the areas in the dark blue might get an inch or two out in western maryland. the highlands of west virginia and along the pennsylvania border. it's going to be ending after midnight tonight. very light amounts of snow, mainly on grassy area. around the metro area, our northern, western suburbs and on the eastern shore. i'm bag with your seven-day outlook in ten minutes. aaron? >> tom, thank you. this morning the lapd is staying on high alert each after

one of the large he's man hunts it's launched appears to be over. as we speak, police are trying to identify a body found in a burned-out cabin. nbc's tony chin live in big bear california with the latest. tony in. >> reporter: good morning, aaron. first of all, i want to show you what's happening where i am. take a look behind me. you can see california highway patrol officers are basically guarding highway 38. now, we're about six miles away from that cabin where investigators found charred human remains. just to give you a background on what happened. this all began at about noon on tuesday. that's when officers say christopher dorner stole a purple nissan. he then ditched that vehicle and carjacked a white pickup. officers spotted him and exchanged gunfire. but he was still able to drive away. now, there was a time period where sheriffs deputies finally

caught up with him at that cabin where that fire happened. they got into a dramatic gun battle. one deputy was wounded, sadly, another killed. swat officers moved in and according to a source shot tear gas into the cabin. it's believed that the tear gas may have sparked this fire, but they don't know for sure. dorner never came out of that cabin. so it is presumed that those charred remains belonged to him. meantime, a riverside police officer who was killed last week during this murder spree will be laid to rest later today. aaron, back to you. >> tony shin reporting live for us. thank you, tony. >> president obama has some clear gold this morning after the state of the union address since his election. it was wide ranging. he could called for transportation and infrastructure improvement to encourage spending. immigration reform is close at

hand. they will -- also made an emotional plea for gun control. much of the focus was on spending and specifically on jobs. >> let's be clear. deficit reduction alone is not an economic plan. a growing economy that creates good middle class jobs, that must be the north star that guides our efforts. >> part of that economic plan includes raising the minimum wage, reforming medicare and the tax code and focusing on education and job training. this morning a lot of reaction and questions about how the president plans to accomplish some of the objectives he mentioned last night. >> joining us now is nbc news deputy political editor. >> thanks for having me. >> let's start with this north star as the president called it. the jobs issue. he laid out a lot of goals to help the middle class. of those, what is the tough wres or the easiest in.

>> minimum wage is something that a lot of people think should be done on the democratic side. it's going to fall on deaf ears on the house republican side much that's not likely to happen. there has been some movement on immigration. i think that that's kind of the biggest topic that a lot of people think would happen. we'll see if there's some movement on infrastructure. he kind of made that joke last night that you like all those ribbon cuttings in your districts. we'll see if there's movement on that. immigration and of course the rousing end emotionally on guns, trying to pressure really john boehner to at least bring up a vote on this even if a majority of his conference doesn't want it. >> you mentioned the gun control legislation and the emotional moment last night. the president reaching out to the pam lis and the victims of gun violence. does that put pressure on congress to put a vote through? >> in particular, the three things that he outlined, especially when you look at background checks, the thing

that everybody thinks will likely get done, but then assault weapons and high capacity magazine clips, much more controversial within congress. broad majority support in many polls. you'll see if john boehner can bring this to the floor and obama, i think, last night that whole they deserve a vote thing was a pressure point to say, look, even if you don't want this done, bring it to the floor so that there can be a vote up or down on this. i think these are the kinds of things he feels he can sell as he goes across the country over the next several days. some of his economic points. pre-k and things like that. they're very poll tested. take some of these things, go out in the country and get outside pressure on congress to actually have a vote on it. >> he talked about his proposal several times. i'm proposing this and that. when he got to climate change,

he seemed to say if congress doesn't do something, he'll do it without them. >> it's a clear acknowledgment that there hasn't been much movement. even when democrats -- they couldn't get through that energy plan that they had. it was very close. i think that he understands that there's almost no chance of something like that getting through congress again. but he's getting a lot of pressure from environmental groups. he's vowing to take action through executive order. anything that happens in executive action is not going to be strong and forceful as something that came out of congress. >> the president takes the message on the road. what's he doing to -- >> you'll see the items that were catch i. today he's supposed to unveil a college scorecard. everybody wants the best bang for their buck. going to take it on the road. talk about universal pre-k. talk about some of those items on guns and immigration.

he feels like are commonsense measures that people should get behind. >> thank you for coming in. democrats have given the president's address a warm reaccepting. one local leader is upset over something he left out. delegate eleanor holmes norton says the president made no mention of budget autonomy. she said that is disappointing considering the length he has gone through to make it a priority for the white house. >> gop fighting back against the president's new plans for the economy. rising star senator marco rubio spoke for the party saying new initiatives amount to new taxes on the american people. >> as you heard tonight, his solution to every problem we face is for washington, to tax more, borrow more and spend more. >> this idea that our problems was caused by a government too small, it's not true. >> rubio also called on the president to adopt the republican plan for medicare

reform and renewed a call for spending cuts. this morning, marco rubio getting more attention for a moment in which he was talking during which of her response. what happens here when he realizes he needs a drink. rubio lunged for that water, fook took a quick sip and continued on. he has a sense of humor. he tweeted this picture of the poland spring water bottle that he desperately craved. >> it was trending on twitter last night shortly after that little moment there. >> twitter was a popular place to react to the president's speech. check out this graphic. more than 1.3 million people tweeted between the president's entrance and the gop response. that's almost two times as many tweets as last year. the high point came around 9:45 when the president was talking about opportunities for the middle class and raising minimum wage. his call for gun control

generated a lot of tweets. today on capitol hill, president obama's next choice for treasury secretary will have his confirmation hearing before the senate finances committee. jack liu is expected to face questions about his tenure. he will be grilled about his investment in a cayman islands venture capital fund. he was the former white house chief of staff and budget director is still expected to be easily confirmed. it's up to the full senate chamber to decide if chuck hagel will become the next defense secretary. the senate armed services committee voted along party lines in favor of his confirmation. hagel faces opposition from fellow republicans. many challenged his past statements on votes on israel, iran, iraq and nuclear weapons. more than halfway through the winter. our area has not seen a major snowstorm yet. that has plenty of money in the coffers for d.c. not for maryland though.

they spent more than half of its budgeted $41 million. compare that to d.c. and virginia which have spent about a third of their budgets. maryland's highway administration says heavy snow in the west has been a big reason behind its drained budget. but it still has enough money and resources to get through the rest of the winter. all right. it's 6:51. time for weather and traffic on the 1s. we haven't seen much snow but that could change for a little bit, tom. >> in just a little bit. i'll have snow this afternoon into tonight. between now and then, a lot of cloudines cloudiness. live view from the city camera. reagan national, 35. here's the d.c. metro morning. how it's shaping up. cloudiness through the morning. in the 40s by mid-morning and by noontime, hitting the mid-40s and holding steady into the early part of the afternoon. in the region, we're at or below freezing in montgomery county. near freezing in prince's

george's. most of maryland in the freeze ago mark. it's right near freezing. upper 30s on the waters. in the district of columbia, low to mid-30s. where is the rain and snow coming from? a system from kentucky, tennessee illinois, it's coming our way. moving in later this afternoon. right now, no precipitation around the area. no travel problems this morning. as you head back home, you need an umbrella. we'll have a few scattered light -- maybe a little wet snow out of the mountains. by 4:00 or so, still light rain around the metro area south and east. maybe a little wet snow into the shenandoah valley out of west virgin virginia. then by 9:00 this evening, we'll have the rain/snow line closer to washington. wet snow northern virginia, northern, western suburbs and northern suburbs in maryland. as of midnight, it changes over to wet snow right in the district and moves over to the eastern shore after midnight.

heads out to sea after that. get sun back tomorrow. we'll be getting only a coating to less than an inch. areas north and west of washington the light blue zone and mostly on the grassy areas melting on road wags. a little bit more pennsylvania border and heading into the mountains. here's the next several days. sun back tomorrow into the 40s and then near 50. increasing clouds on friday. friday evening some flurries. colder air moves in. maybe flurries and snow showers on saturday. not much of accumulation. only in the 30s for highs saturday and sunday. mid-30s. still cold monday. maybe rain on tuesday. now a look at traffic. here's danella. good morning. still tracking breaking news in northeast d.c. inbound, new york avenue at kendall street. all your lanes are still blocked. we have a live picture of what the scene looks like now. tony tull is still live there. you can see police are blocking the lanes. because the accident here involves a pedestrian. as we talk about delays in the

area, as you're traveling in maryland, you see delays on 50 from the beltway all the way down as you head inbound new york avenue. other roads you can take. route 1 instead. as you make your commute from maryland to d.c. over to arlington. good news here. ft. myer drive was closed. that accident has cleared. still having trouble at ft. myer drive. a right lane blocked still because of that earlier accident. 395, good news at glebe northbound. had a disabled vehicle. it was blocking the left lane as you see delays in this area. it's a smooth ride to the 14th street bridge. aaron and eun, over to you. 6:54. virginia's gas tax won't o be going away after all. a committee rewrote the transportation plan. the governor wanted to eliminate the gas tax and raise the state's sales tax. the committee's version of the bill includes the gas tax and adds a 1% fuel sales tax and allows local governments to add

another 1%. the senate will vote later this week on the bill. it will be up to the house to decide its fate. lawmakers will likely reject the new plan. mu had morning, take a look at this video from a house fire in charles county, maryland that killed one person and sent three others to the hospital. the fire broke out around 1:00 a.m. in the 5300 block of stuckey road in indian head. the red cross is helping the seven people displaced by the fire. fire crews say it was especially difficult to fight because there were no nearby fire hydrants. they had to bring tanker trucks. maryland state police and fire marshals are investigating the cause of the fire. the d.c. fire chief will deliver his state of the fire department speech. kenneth ellerby will address them at udc this evening. last year, a group of firefighters walked out after the chief proposed changing their work schedules from 24-hour shifts to 12-hour shifts. to date, the 24-hour shifts are still in place. on this ash wednesday, pope benedict is stepping down for

the good of the church he says. earlier this morning in vatican city, he made his first comments since announcing he's stepping down. the pope received a standing ovation before making his weekly address. he told the crowd he didn't have the physical or spiritual strength to continue. the pope will preside over ash wednesday mass later today at st. peter's basilica. his last address will likely be february 27th, one day before he steps down. i want to say thanks to the radio production class at elliott hiem middle school in northeast d.c. they invited me out yesterday for an interview on their live radio or internet radio broadcast. they asked a lot of great questions about broadcasting and electronic media and about education as well. appreciate the invitation to mr. burke's and his class. >> future journalists right there. >> one more check of the forecast, tom. have an umbrella before you leave. you will need it this afternoon. tonight after sunset, could get

wet snow. the areas in the light blue might get a light coating. up to a half inch. ending by midnight. we'll keep you posted throughout the day. danella? inbound new york avenue at kendall. all lanes are still blocked. there's a slow commute. take a live look from chopper 4. new york avenue inbound. serious delays. thank you, danella. that is "news4 today." thank you you for starting your day with us. the "today" show is next. we'll be back with weather and traffic and breaking news. we'll back here tomorrow morning at 4:28. see you tomorrow. make it a great wednesday everybody. my mom doesn't drink starbucks coffee because she thinks it's too dark, and so i brought her some blonde roast. she loves it now.

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